INVISIBILITY OF FEMALE POLITICIANS IN PAID ADVERTISING, pre-election TV clip, Serbia in 2012 and 2014

Abstract

This paper deals with a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of pre-election TV commercials inthe last two campaigns of 2012 and of 2014 in Serbia. The aim of the research is to deconstruct thestrategy of political parties in the field of gender sensitization from a gender perspective based onthe most important activity of parliamentary democracy – the election cycle, using examples ofpaid political advertising – the pre-election TV clip, for which the parties allocated the most resourcesin the campaign of 2012 and of 2014 in Serbia. The aim is also to analyze the personalexperience of female politicians in order to provide a new and different way of analyzing practicesand strategies of the parties in relation to the visibility of female candidate in the mediaduring the election campaign.

The basic method is the critical discourse analysis (CDA) complemented by the method ofcomparing the regular election campaign of 2012 and the early elections of 2014, and the methodof life stories of the candidates (oral history). The CDA puts a special emphasis on various forms of discrimination that result from the abuse of power that continues to lead to the emergence ofsocial inequality and injustice (Dijk 2008).

There are three levels at which the (in)visibility of women in the political process can be observed:a) the (lack of) presence of women on the candidate lists in the election campaign, andafter the elections, the (decreased) number of women in the parliament; b) (in)visibility of womenin paid media campaigns and c) (in)visibility of women in the language.

Practice: a) On the basis of the “principle of affirmative action”, women become more presenton the candidate lists and in the parliament as a result of the introduction of quota into the gendersensitive legislation (all SEE countries – Southeast Europe/Western Balkans). b) Women are stillrarely seen in the pre-election TV clip which is the most effective paid advertising, because it is atraditionally male “space”, while women are more active in reach-out field work. c) visibility ofwomen in language is achieved, for example, by the use of the Gender-sensitive language Code.(S. Savić).

In this paper the focus is on the sub-paragraphs (a) and (b), with (c) being analyzed in a limitedmanner only as part of the pre-election TV clip slogans analysis.

A TV clip is comprised of: the slogan and the body of the clip. The slogan is made of aniconic and a linguistic part. In both campaign slogans there were no gender sensitive slogans,except for one in 2014 (URS’s campaign for the female Mayor of Belgrade). The body is made ofthe video format and the content. In both campaigns, in 2012 and in 2014 forms of videos werehybrid types that included: documentary footage from the field, speech of the leader speakingdirectly in camera, animation, short fiction form.

The analysis confirmed the basic hypothesis: despite the fact that, according to the legal provisionsa female candidate occupied every third position of the candidate lists in both analyzedelection cycles – they are underrepresented in paid political advertising in the media (TV clip).Individual hypotheses are also confirmed.

The icons and the contents of the presentation of Serbia in the election cycle in 2012 and in2014 in the election TV clips were masculinized from the standpoint of power in society that isheld by male party leaders. The basic strategy of all parties who had a paid television campaign,in a form of TV clips, in both observed election cycles was the strategy of exclusion from thepolitical space mediated by the media. So we are here talking about a media, and by that, a widersocial invisibility of women in exercising one of the fundamental rights, the right to participationin decision-making and active participation in the elections.